{"id":4475,"date":"2026-02-24T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/?p=4475"},"modified":"2026-02-19T20:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T20:04:25","slug":"a-second-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/2026\/02\/24\/a-second-chance\/uncategorized\/4475\/","title":{"rendered":"A second chance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Thomas Scheiner on unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s gospel his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. The words he taught them have become one of the best-known, most used, and most loved prayers in Christianity. We know it so well, saying it several times a day, sometime without a great deal of attention. As I reflected on it to date seemed to me a perfect vehicle for reflecting on the blessing of BEGINNING:

\u201cGive us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.\u201d<\/em>

There is a beginning in the call of today\u2019s gospel to rediscover its many riches from its ordering of the universe to its trust in God\u2019s mercy and love for us. Each day when we pray it offers us the chance to begin again by putting ourselves firmly in that loving and merciful presence. In his rules and Benedict says:

\u201cThe celebration of Lauds and Vespers must never pass without the superiors reciting the entire Lord\u2019s prayer at the end for all to hear, because storms of contention are likely to spring up.\u201d<\/em>

His words remind me of how this prayer is constantly offering us the opportunity to begin again. It acknowledges that we will fail again and again, but it doesn\u2019t give up on us. Instead, it reminds us of the loving mercy of God which is always offering us a new beginning.

The beginning it offers allows us the opportunity to reset our relationship with God and with one another. It doesn\u2019t deny our failures to love God or each other. Instead it offers us, again and again, a second chance, an opportunity to do better next time.

Where is Christ offering you an opportunity to begin again this Lent?
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In today\u2019s gospel his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. The words he taught them have become one of the best-known, most used, and most loved prayers in Christianity. We know it so well, saying it several times a day, sometime without a great deal of attention. As I reflected on it to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,494,356,544,461,239,271,336,537,492,246,1],"tags":[566,28,191,18,6,8,33,229,13,41,888,29,15,665,55,521],"class_list":["post-4475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benedictine-spirituality","category-christ","category-cross","category-discernment","category-divine-office","category-gospel","category-lectio-divina","category-lent","category-liturgy","category-rule-of-st-benedict","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","tag-beginnings","tag-benedictine","tag-blessing","tag-challenge","tag-gospel","tag-hope","tag-kingdom","tag-kingdomvalues","tag-lectiodivina","tag-lent","tag-lent2026","tag-love","tag-newlife","tag-ourfather","tag-prayer","tag-secondchance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4481,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions\/4481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turveyabbey.org.uk\/pilgrimage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}